Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-18
SEED FOR TEXAS.
Commissioner Colman Writes to Sen.
ators and Representatives 10 Fol.
low the Presidents Suggestion.
The Critic Publishes a Caustic Editorial on
the ALE ged Outrsges in Washington
County, Tex.
THE SEED BILL VETO.
Special to the Gazette.

WASHINGTON, EeO. LINE veto OF the
! Texas seed bill by the President WAS dis
appointing to the members of the delegs
ton, especially to Mr.. Lanham and Sena-
tor Coke, who had worked laboriously for
the measure. The Texas delegation di-
vided on sustaining the veto, and Messrs.
Lanham, Culberson and Jones were the
only ones voting to pass the bill over the
| Presidents disapproval. As to the sug-
gestion of the President that the mem
bers of Congress relinquish their claim to
Commissioner of Agriculture thinks the
idea an excellent one; in fact, ne las
been endeavoring for some time to accom-
plish this, and has written an autograph
letter TO each member having city con-
stituenCy who had large allotment of
seed u his credit, suggesting that a por-
ton of his quota be given TO the suffer
ers. There are now remaining to the
| credit of Senators and members l, 22S 900
packages OF seed. Over 1000 names of
those needing seed are received daily at
the department from the county Judges of
Texas. The Commissioner says If the
suggestion of the President is adopted ne
will give his personal attention TO the
distribution and carefully divide the seed
among the regions affected.
FOR FURNITURE.
The Secretary of the Treasury, in a
communication to the Speaker to-day,
recommending an additional appropria-
ton for the furnishing of public buildings
over and above the amount now carried
in the sundry civil bill, which he says are
insufficient, includes $4,000 for furnishing
the public buildings at Waco, and $4,000
for Dallas.
A CAUSTIC EDITORIAL.
The Critic tonight Publishes the fol-
lowing caustiC editorial on the alleged
Texas outrage, headed"The Kuklux Chest
nut" "The result of the investigation
now being held by the Senate committee
with reference to certain Outrages upon
| the liberty CT the franchise that are al
| legged to have been committed in Wash
| ington county, Tex, will differ in no wise
| from the result If similar Investigations
held time end time again before. There
will be msjOrity report sustaining the
charges and q minority report declaring
| them of partisan origin and not supported
| by the evidence. The reports will DE
| printed and such portions of them as can
! be made politically available will go into
| the Campsign literatue of the Republican
| party. But it is not so easy to fire the
northern heart with kukluX outrages as
| it was some years ago. The bloody shirt
has lost its old time effect and Republi-
cans, as well as Democrats, have come
TO understand that while disturbances
at the places of elections and interference
with the rights OF voters are
still liable to occur, especially
in localities where the ignorant
and vicious elements largely prevail, the
general sentiment OF the country, south
as well as north, in Texas as well as
Massachusetts, of Senator C0ke's as
well IS Senator Hoar's constituents, is
overwhelmingly on the side of law, order
and liberty, of equal and exact Justice.
Considering, moreover, the number Of
voters in the country, the wide differ
ences in race, religion and educa-
ton that obtain among them, the
extremes to which party feeling is
carried, and the reckless methods
to which in many instances the
politicians resort, 1t is the miracle OF the
age that our great popular elections are
accompanied by so little turbulence or
violation of law. That outrages are occa.
sionally committed and the ballot box
despOiled and voters intimidated at the
polls is not to be denied, but these are
not the acts of organized communities,
and we can conceive OF no grosser ID US
tice than deliberate attempt, especially
by partisan tribunal of United States
senators, to implicate a section, or stale,
or county in the odium of crimes that are
almost invariably traceable to lawless and
irresponsible individuals"
WASHINGTON COUNTY INVESTIGATION.
WASHINGTON, Feb. ne. B. Brown,
colored, was the first witness before the
Texas committee to-day. He was clerk
OF election at Gratsell precinct last No
vember; 347 votes were cast, of which
number about 285 were Republican, most
ly colored. There was a good deal of
noise and roWdying from the time the
polls closed at O'Clock and good desl
of shooting, but the election officers were
not disturbed. The witness did not hear
any threats to ColOred men, but good
many colored men we're alarmed and
"runned" off. The whites We're IN row
among themselves. One of the white
men was knocked il the head by weight
and was wounded. The witness described
lASlp1OSlSoS Va ttlS SOuuI AIIlA IlC lN~CIpt
of Il note from an outsider, which note
the two Democratic election officers con-
sidered secretly, and the entrance soon
after of three armed and disguised men,
who presented pistols to the faces of the
officers and commanded them to "hold
up" and seized the ballot box.
Cornell and Butcher, white election Off
GERS, laughed at the affair. Witness never
saw the box afterwards, but was told by
coloTed man that he had seen the box
lying IN the sand broken in pieces and the
tickets torn and scattered about in the
sand. During the progress of the count
people entered several times to ask how
the count was going, particularly with
regard to the candidate for county Judge.
The peoples tickets were considerably
scratched, and at the suggestion of one
of the Democratic judges these scratched
tickets were separated and counted
first, the Republican tickets being laid
aside. At the time of the raid all
the tickets but ninety six had been
counted, and those were straight Repub-
lican without any scratch. OF those
counted, Scheutze, the Republican candi-
date for County Judge, had fifteen ma
jority over Judge Kirk. Bolton, the
Democratic candidate for County Com
missioner, about whom inquiries were
made by outsiders during the evening,
oiaN hnh